Samsung selling more phones than Nokia

King of the featurephone in Western Europe

Samsung's plans for global dominance in the mobile phone world look like coming to fruition as it has finally leapfrogged Nokia - at the top of one chart at least.

The Korean firm has now sold more featurephones (ie those that just provide the basic phoning/texting functions with a wee bit o' web thrown in) than Nokia in Western Europe, with 12.2 million in Q1 alone, according to research firm IDC.

Nokia saw its sales slide by 18%, down to 9.1 million units, as the Finnish manufacturer struggles to match its lustre of the early part of the century.

Rubber times

It's not all doom and gloom for the former rubber merchant though (seriously, Nokia made cables and wellies) as its still the market leader in smartphones in our region: 4.9 million sold in Q1.

However, the chasing pack is looking impressive: Apple has 3 million iPhones lying around Western Europe, impressive for one and a bit models, with RIM and HTC coming up strong too (2.4 million and 0.9 million respectively).

Samsung has only sold 0.3 million units in the same period, showing the public's imagination hasn't really been caught by the likes of the Galaxy and Galaxy Portal - although the Wave and Galaxy S should kick that up a few gears in the near future.

Still kicking

But what of the other brands? Sony Ericsson is still struggling to regain its position at the top of the charts, selling only 3.7 million phone (both feature and smart) in Q1 this year, and LG is holding firm with 4.1 million.

But the good news (well, good news if you're a phone-loving website) is mobile phone sales are still rising: 8% up year on year, so people are clearly still loving their mobile.